As an early vehicle collector and historian, I’ve had a number of people ask me what I gravitate toward when adding wood-wheeled transportation to our collection. Many expect the answer to center
around a popular make or type of vehicle – and I can easily provide a response
like that. Beyond my intrigue with the
heavier work and western-themed vehicles, though, perhaps the real question
should be ‘why’ I collect what I do. In
that case, my response will touch (at least partially) on the selection of
pieces with the best investment potential.
You’ll also probably hear me share some stories related to the thrill of
the chase. Even so, there’s still another
driving force behind what we do – the stories.
For me, this is where the real rewards are. The background behind each of the
transportation pieces we collect is full of drama, struggle, failure, and
triumph. It’s real life adventure we can
watch unfold and learn from. Growing
through these discoveries is what really fuels our efforts. As a result, our collecting isn’t limited to
just vehicles or brands but to almost everything that surrounds the unique
history of America’s first transportation industry. After all, that’s essentially what gives
anything intrigue – those feature-rich, back-stories highlighting interesting
details we never knew.
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This small stage wagon once plied the
trails around California’s most lucrative gold mine – The Utica at Angels
Camp. From the incredible rags to riches
story of the mine to the exceptional rarity of the vehicle, this mail stage is
an extraordinary survivor from America’s Wild West.
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It’s a focus that sounds simple enough
but the truth is that, in roughly two hundred years of travel in the New World,
there’s an extraordinary amount of depth and breadth to this topic – far beyond
the old vehicles, themselves. The ‘extra’
pieces I find myself searching for and stumbling across do more than tell their
own story, they help flesh out the overall accounts while reinforcing the vastness
and complexity of this old trade.
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This traveler’s guide dates to 1836. While it provides details of stage,
steamboat, canal, and railroad routes in those days, we have other western
guidebooks that once supplied important information related to western overland
trails.
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So, while we have a few dozen vehicles
in our collection, the supporting elements that help profile the entire
industry will measure in the thousands.
Original photos related to makers, patents, lifestyle activities,
brands, vehicle types, and special events are among the countless black and
white remnants we’ve salvaged and assembled.
These pieces are complemented by several hundred period brochures and
promotional pieces. Even multiple hardware
variations within the categories of skeins, wrenches, drag shoes, brake
ratchets, reaches, rub irons, springs, chains, maker tags, and the like can
each have stories associated with them.
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This new, old stock sign was designed to
be applied to the inside of glass windows.
It was made by Palm Bros. & Co. and was referred to as a translusign.
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Other elements of our collection include
vehicle-related patent documents, maker ledgers, manufacturing equipment,
antique signs, hames bells, unique wrenches, and other
all-but-forgotten-but-once-important elements from yesterday. It’s a collage of commerce that consistently helps
bring a prominent part of our past back to life. We’ve even assembled some horse drawn
transportation pieces as a result of their relevance to the beginnings of the auto
industry. After all, this part of
history heavily relied on the wagon and carriage business to get themselves
established. How so? In some cases, as with Chevrolet/General
Motors, the motorized upstarts needed others who could help secure financial
capital and production insights. In other
circumstances, brands like Ford and others, depended on the body-making skills
from craftsmen who had learned the trade from wagon and coach building. Still others, leaned on the engineering
acumen from period machine builders, blacksmiths, and wheel makers. The truth is, the American automobile story
can’t be completely told without sharing the foundation of the whole enterprise
– the horse-drawn vehicle industry. In
many ways, it was a good news/bad news kind of relationship between the
two. It was an opportunity for some
employees and entrepreneurs to embrace the next generation of vehicles. In the beginning, they each capitalized on the
other, although one was destined to lose during the transition.
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Many early innovators hired a
photographer to capture patented advancements while using the image within
sales promotions. This image highlights a unique, folding step that could easily be attached to the sideboards of wagons.
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The criteria for inclusion within our
collection often requires us to look beyond the individual value of the single
piece. If it’s a unique element that
helps tell the story in a more detailed and interesting way, there’s a fair
chance we’ll try and include it with all of the other artifacts we house.
As is so often the case, the history
we’ve assembled has a way of finding us as much as we find it. It's a truth we discovered some thirty years ago when we purchased the acreage we live on. The place is an old farm with roots
dating back hundreds of years. A well-worn wagon road still runs alongside the original stone farmhouse on the
property. Over the years, we’ve found numerous
transportation-related artifacts along this road; a heavy, 56-inch steel tire
(likely from an ore or freight wagon), an early-style rub iron, a brake lever, box
rod parts, brake shoe, and other similar parts.
The truth is that wheeled transportation has always been a big part of
this country’s history and only through continued research will we be able to
pass along the most accurate details about period vehicles. Surely, we owe that much to future
generations.
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An extraordinary find, we were pleased
to add this original catalog of Pabst Beer wagons to our collection years ago.
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Period photos can be helpful to
restoration professionals as well as historians by providing a clearer
understanding of what a particular vehicle looked like during the different
seasons of its life.
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Many will be traveling this week and
next, enjoying the blessing of a long Labor Day weekend. We wish you safe journeys and encourage you
to keep your eye out for unique parts of our wheeled past. There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle still
out there but, it often takes intense focus to help locate and understand all
of what we find. Slowly and collectively,
we’re putting everything back together, growing appreciation for a huge and
immensely complicated industry. Good
luck in your own collecting endeavors and send us some shots of your ‘finds’ from time to time. We’d enjoy
seeing the fruits of your labors.
Please Note: As with each of our blog writings, all imagery and text is copyrighted with All Rights Reserved. The material may not be broadcast, published, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written permission from David E. Sneed, Wheels That Won The West® Archives, LLC
